McDONNELL Douglas (MDC) has secured its first commercial customer for its Flashjet paint-removal system.
Singapore Technologies Aerospace (STAe) has purchased a mobile Flashjet for use in stripping Lockheed Martin C-130s and other aircraft.
The system uses pulses of high-energy light from a xenon flashlamp to ablate the paint - converting it instantly to ash - and then blasts the exposed surface with frozen carbon-dioxide pellets to cool and clean it. It avoids the use of toxic chemicals and the creation of hazardous waste.
MDC has gained some 13 months' experience with a Flashjet system at its Mesa, Arizona, helicopter plant. The STAe Flashjet will be the first to use a robot mounted on a movable platform, allowing aircraft of up to Boeing 747-400 size to be stripped.
STAe's system will be built and demonstrated in the USA in about a year, then shipped to Singapore for installation. The company says that interest is increasing, as environmental pressure builds to replace existing chemical-stripping systems, making the almost-$3 million cost of a mobile Flashjet easier to justify, MDC says.
Source: Flight International
